1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a character input device, an image forming apparatus including the same, and a method for controlling the character input device.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, there is known a character input device capable of inputting various types of characters. Such a character input device is mounted in an image forming apparatus, for example. Note that the character input device mounted in the image forming apparatus is called an operation panel (or an operation portion).
Conventionally, a keyboard screen (a screen with software keyboard) is displayed on the operation panel for accepting a character input from a user. Thus, the user can input characters using the software keyboard. In addition, conventionally, instead of simply displaying a general keyboard screen on the operation panel, a keyboard screen for inputting alphabets is displayed as an initial screen for accepting alphabet input from the user, or a keyboard screen for inputting numerals is displayed as the initial screen for accepting numeral input from the user. In other words, conventionally, a type of keyboard screen to be displayed as the initial screen for accepting character input (a type of characters that can be input) is set in advance.
Here, there is a case where the image forming apparatus requests the user to re-input the same user information as that already registered. The user information means information defined by a character string including alphabets, numerals, and the like. For instance, as an example of the user information, there is a user name or the like. A user may register the user name as a character string consisting of only alphabets, and another user may register the user name as a character string consisting of only numerals. In such cases, when a type of the keyboard screen to be displayed as the initial screen for accepting input of the user information (a type of characters that can be input) is set in advance, the following inconvenience may occur.
For instance, it is supposed that the keyboard screen for inputting alphabets is displayed as the initial screen for accepting input of the user name. In this case, the user who has registered the user name as a character string consisting of only alphabets can re-input the user name using the keyboard screen for inputting alphabets as it is, which is displayed as the initial screen. In contrast, the user who has registered the user name as a character string consisting of only numerals cannot re-input the user name unless switching the keyboard screen for inputting alphabets to the keyboard screen for inputting numerals. In other words, for the user who has registered the user name as a character string consisting of only numerals, it is not convenient that he or she has to perform an additional operation (of switching the displayed keyboard screen) for re-inputting the user name.